Belgian National Road Championships - CN

Tessenderlo, Belgium, June 27, 2004

Vintage Steels

Tom Steels has added a fourth Belgian tricolore jersey to his impressive collection,
winning today's Elite Men's Championships in Tessenderlo in a three man sprint.
Steels made the final selection together with defending champion Geert Omloop
(MrBookmaker) and Geert Verheyen (Chocolade Jacques), comfortably beating Omloop
to take the title.

How it unfolded

Although the 13.35 km parcours (ridden 18 times) was not selective in itself,
the way it was raced and a moderate wind was sufficient to break up the peloton.
Cyclo-crosser Bart Wellens (Spaar Select) was the first rider to attack, but
he wasn't allowed any freedom. After a flurry of counter-attacks, a group containing:
Christoph Roodhooft and Kristof Trouvé (MrBookmaker.com-Palmans), Christophe
Brandt and Thierry Marichal (Lotto-Domo), Pieter Mertens (Vlaanderen-T Interim),
Johan Verstrepen (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago), Preben Van Hecke (Relax-Bodysol)
and Frédéric Amorison (Quick.Step-Davitamon) managed to get away on the first
lap and was not chased.

The big chase group started working and picked up all the leaders with five
laps to go to form a group of 27 in front after Marichal was dropped. But the
group didn't last together for long, as Gilbert countered and took Mattan, Cretskens,
Van Mechelen, Steegmans, Steels, Verheyen and Omloop with him, with Van Der
Slagmolen, Caethoven, Vanthourenhout, De Waele, Amorison and Hoste closing the
gap with just under four laps to go to form a group of 14.

With under two laps (25 km) to go, the decisive attack was made by Steels,
Omloop and Verheyen, and the very experienced trio quickly opened up a gap of
30 seconds on the rest of the chasers. Several attempts were made to bridge,
with Steven Caethoven (Vlaanderen) getting within 15 seconds, but in the end
the three leaders had plenty of time to play out the final sprint.

Omloop went first on the last uphill before the downhill finish, but straight
away Steels had his wheel. In the end it was Verheyen who led out with Steels
coming from second wheel to claim the title, extremely satisfied with his result.

Photography

Images by AFP

In
a three man sprint, Tom Steels (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago) comfortably outsprints
Geert Omloop (MrBookmaker.com-Palmans) and Geert Verheyen (Chocolade Jacques-Wincor
Nixdorf) to take the national crown.